Chapter 14
Our group was slowing down. They'd never needed water, food, rest, or shelter before now and they were starting to get tired—and irate. Already we'd lost some of our number, who had decided to take their chances in the desert rather than follow the angel.
Missolis and Malachi had tried to convince them to stay with the group, but nothing they said would sway them; they thought I was purposefully leading them to their deaths because I was an angel, and why would an angel be helping demons?
I couldn't blame them for their mistrust. They'd trusted me once and it had ended with them in shackles at Lucifers feet. We'd been lucky that Lucifer was, well Lucifer, and not particularly interested in small potatoes like us.
In any case, leading the rebels to their deaths would have required me to know where on Earth I was going, and looking around the hazy, endless sea of dunes around us… I had absolutely no clue. The only thing I knew with certainty was that they needed water and shelter, and soon.
So far, I'd been mostly unaffected.
I was as mortal as they were, but I had something they didn't: Light. Being out of Hell, I could regenerate my Light and use it to sustain my body for long periods of flight, not needing to eat, drink, or sleep as urgently—a trick Abaddon had taught me after my grueling solo flight to Helena.
My Light was helping with the dehydration, but the heat and exhaustion was starting to get to me. We had been flying for hours and I hadn't spotted a single landmark, not so much as even a tree. Lucifer had picked the perfect spot to dump us, and the longer I mused over it, the more I felt I understood him.
It didn't matter to him how many demons died, it wasn't a test of strength or personality, and the surviving demons weren't going to get a prize at the end of it, it was all just a sick joke.
He was jaded.
Most human religions had similar stories to Lucifer's. A deity-like entity who sacrificed themselves for the benefit of humanity, ending either nailed to a cross, or chained to a mountain, or cut in half. But, in Lucifer's case, it had all been a lie.
He hadn't suffered for the sake of anyone but himself, and an eternity of watching angels being thrown into the Pit had done nothing to humble him. He pretended to be of slight temperament, but the anger and utter contempt he had for everyone and everything God had created was palpable.
I had seen bits of the real Lucifer in the way he broke Medrion's neck and locked his most loyal lieutenant in Hell. He had chosen to be cruel to these demons, depositing the darkness dwellers in the brightest, hottest place on Earth, just for kicks.
Most of them would die in the desert, and the ones who survived wouldn't likely be joining whatever army he was assembling—the angels who had been caught and thrown in the Pit were weak and not worthy of the imagined honor—but they would sow chaos amongst the humans, and that was good enough.
The sun had started to slip down beneath the sandy waves when I finally saw the silhouettes of what could only be a human-made structures. I called to the demons at my back to follow me and picked up the pace, soaring higher into the air so we could swoop quickly towards the buildings ahead of us. I kept hoping it wasn't an oasis, a mirage, as I was sure the rebels would mutiny if I had gotten their hopes up only to lead them into more sand.
Fortunately, it turned out to be a small village built in the shade of a rocky outcrop that would protect the inhabitants from the worst of the midday sun. It was rudimentary, but where there were buildings there was shelter, as well as food and water. I only hoped that whatever made me invisible to the humans also extended to the demons, or we were going to have a big problem.
I realized something was wrong as soon as we got close enough to see between the buildings; there was no foot traffic, no people fluttering from street to street or in and out of buildings. In fact, the closer we got to the city, the easier it was to see… most of the buildings looked broken.
Shards of glass had burst from their frames and lay strewn around the ground, glittering in the light of the setting sun. Entire walls had crumbled to stone and dust, leaving many of the buildings interiors exposed to the elements. It reminded me of Heaven—the broken version of it anyway.
Unlike Heaven though, this place was entirely uninhabited and looked like it had been that way for some time. While on the one hand I was relieved not to have to test the demons visibility, I was also concerned that we wouldn't find any supplies to help us.
My stomach sank.
"Over there," I called out to the demons behind me. "Land on the tops of those buildings."
I landed on one of the rooftops overlooking what I thought was the central square, Missolis landing next to me and scanning the ground below. We were four stories up, looking down at barely paved streets littered in personal belongings and debris.
I had no idea what had happened, but it looked like everyone had left in a rush, grabbing whatever they could carry and leaving behind everything else. The doors to the buildings had been left wide open, a few swinging sadly from their broken hinges, and everything was covered in thick layers of sand.
"What happened here?" asked Missolis.
"I'm not sure," I said. "But I don't like it."
Missolis ran her hand along the ledge of the building we were on. Her fingers came away covered in a mixture of sand and a strange gray dust. She rubbed her fingers together, and the powder flaked off with the breeze. "Ash," she said.
My gut sank further.
"We should…" I paused, took a breath. "We should take shelter in these buildings."
"Where are the humans?"
I shook my head. "I don't know, but it looks like they've been gone a while."
"Gone where?"
"I don't want to think about it. But we can take what we need and rest before we move on."
"I think the next question is obvious…"
"And if I had the answer, it would be yours. In the meantime, gather what supplies you can—look for canned food, water stored in bottles, and somewhere dark and enclosed to rest in. Temperatures will plummet once the sun goes down."
"Consider it done. What will you be doing?"
"I'm going to speak with our guest," I replied, cocking my head toward Hekata. "She was once one of the best Seekers I knew, maybe she has some idea of where we are."
Missolis nodded and walked toward the nearest group of rebels, barking orders as she went. It didn't take long for them to organize into groups and start searching the nearby buildings. It was impressive, but then, she'd been an Overlord in Hell; giving orders came naturally to her, and the rebels were keen to have something to do.
Etari approached with Hekata, bound still and sullen-faced, handing her chains to me before joining the rest of the scouts. I waited until they were all gone before sitting cross-legged in front of Hekata and inviting her to do the same, but she remained standing.
"Are you going to kill me?" she asked.
"Why would I kill you?"
"You're an angel, I'm a demon. We are at war."
"That may have been true once, but things have changed. I wouldn't have rescued you if I was just going to kill you."
Hekata rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Rescued me? Is that what you think you did? Don't tell me you intend on trying to get me to access my feelings again. I assure you, it will not work.""
"No, that's not why I wanted to speak with you."
"Then why have you rescued me? Why not let me take my chances in the desert like the others?"
"Call me sentimental, but I couldn't just let you die out there with the others—because they will die, either from thirst, or hunger, or sunburn."
She seemed not to understand the word sunburn. Instead of dealing with that word, she scowled like she so often did. "Lucifer brought us here to challenge us, so that only the strongest will form part of his glorious army."
"I had a feeling you'd say that, but I'm afraid you are wrong—Lucifer brought you here because he's a sick fuck who enjoys tormenting others."
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"Except I do. Of the two of us, I'm the only one who's actually met Lucifer and spoken with him."
Hekata looked down at me, her jaw moving as she considered whether I was being truthful or not. Curiosity must have won as she sat down, chains clinking, in front of me. "Tell me."
Her curiosity about him clearly outweighed her contempt for me.
"Medrion freed Lucifer." Hekata cringed visibly at the name, about to protest, but I continued. "I tried to stop him, but I was too late. As Medrion's reward for freeing him, Lucifer snapped his neck and tossed his corpse into the Pit. I'm pretty sure the only reason I'm still alive is because he didn't see me as worth the effort to kill—he just kicked me into the Pit to join the corpses."
"Perhaps he meant to challenge you, to see if you could claw your way?—"
"No," I said, interrupting. "I'm sorry. I know that's not what you want to hear, but Lucifer is not who you want him to be. He wasn't who I wanted him to be either."
"Then why release us?"
"I genuinely don't know. I can only imagine that he wanted you all to suffer as he did."
"We have suffered enough in his name." She spat on the ground in disgust.
"I agree. I don't know if you remember, but I tried to free you from the Chantry, however many years ago it's been for you. I didn't believe in what God was doing anymore, and now having spoken to the other fallen angels, I know that most of them didn't agree either."
"So, you are on Lucifer's side?"
"Absolutely not! I want to help the humans, not eradicate them. God's death has broken everything; they cannot pass on, angels walk the Earth rapturing them for Light, and now demons have been let loose on them too. You loved them, back when you were Gadriel, you would have done anything to help them..."
"I have told you?—"
"Yes, yes, Hekata now, Gadriel gone, I get it. I'm not expecting you to have a miraculous change of heart, I tried that before and all it got me was a concussion."
"What do you want from me then?"
"Right now? An open mind would be nice. And, if you remember anything from your Seeking days, maybe a way out of this sandy hellhole."
Hekata narrowed her eyes, looked around, and lifted her shackled hands toward me. "Free me and I will assist you."
"You're asking for a pretty big leap of faith here."
"Indeed, but you have asked me to keep an open mind, so you must do the same. Free me, trust my word, and I will get your people out of this desert."
"And after that?"
"After that, we will see."
She had me at a disadvantage—if she knew where we were, if she knew which way led to less hostile lands… I didn't have a choice but to trust her. At the worst she would fly away and abandon us, but that didn't leave us in any more of a dire situation than we were already in. If she came through, though, maybe it was a sign that Gadriel wasn't as gone as Hekata insisted.
I reached out toward her manacled wrists, touched the metal, and sent a pulse of Light just strong enough to break the bonds, freeing her hands. Hekata winced and looked away from the Light as it surged. When her bindings were broken, she made circles with her wrists… then she bolted to her feet.
I followed, standing up as quickly as she had. "Wait," I called out.
She had already taken steps toward the edge of the building and was in the process of unfurling her dark wings. "What?" she barked.
"I…" I hesitated, not quite sure what to say that would be enough. I'd lost her once, and, by some miracle, found her again. I felt like it was my fault that she was like this, wracked with pain and anger and mistrust. I knew I couldn't fix her, and the Gadriel I had known would not have let me take on the guilt for this, but it was there nonetheless. "Please, just come back."
She stood with one foot off the edge, her wings fully extended, and smirked, before letting herself drop off the building and soaring into the air.
The only thing I could do was wait.